Management Of Cannibalistic Ads To Improve Internet Advertising Efficiency

ABSTRACT

Generating a cannibalism score for a paid ad in a search engine results page (SERP) by gathering keywords relevant to an advertiser, defining rules that compute a cannibalism score for the ad in relation to a corresponding unpaid listing, where the cannibalism score estimates the reduction in revenue to the advertiser due to the ad appearing in the same SERP as the corresponding listing, providing a keyword to a search engine, receiving a SERP from the search engine, determining the position of a first ad placed by the advertiser from among one or more ads in the SERP, determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing from among a plurality of unpaid listings in the SERP, and applying the rules to the ad and to the corresponding unpaid listing to obtain a cannibalism score for the ad.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to online advertising technology, specifically to the ability to identify and manage the purchase of cannibalistic ads.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

An Internet search engine returns one or more web pages to a user's browser in response to a keyword search performed by the user. The returned web pages, known as “search engine results pages” or SERPs, include unpaid search listings, commonly referred to as “organic” search results, as well as paid advertisements, also referred to as ads. Each listing includes a URL, or link to a worldwide web page, that is relevant to a search term entered by the user. The web page that corresponds to a URL returned in an ad or unpaid listing in a SERP is often referred to as a landing page.

The goal of online advertising is to stimulate users to click on paid ads and visit an advertiser's website. The effectiveness of an online advertising campaign is typically measured as a function of the number of clicks on the paid listings, which equates to the number of visitors to the website due to the advertising campaign, and the amount of revenue generated by those visitors. The effectiveness of the advertising campaign can be measured by the ratio of revenue generated to the advertising expenditure, or also by the ratio of visitors to advertising expenditure.

However, the effectiveness of an ad campaign can be severely limited by cannibalistic ads, which are ads that interfere, or reduce, the number of visitors who would otherwise visit as a consequence of clicking on unpaid listings. In other words, cannibalistic ads reduce revenue for an advertiser because they cannibalize organic listings by diverting visitors to the cannibalistic ads who would otherwise click on an unpaid listing and in some cases would purchase goods and services from the advertiser.

In its most basic form, a cannibalistic ad is an ad purchased by a buyer that appears on a web page immediately next to an unpaid listing that promotes the same service or product as the paid ad. A user will sometimes click on the paid ad rather than the unpaid listing. In other cases, there may be one or more ads between the advertiser's ad and the corresponding unpaid listing. Thus, it would be advantageous to be able to identify cannibalistic ads to improve the effectiveness of online ad campaigns.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

A method, system, and a device for generating a cannibalism score for a paid ad in a search engine results page (SERP) is described. The method uses rules to compute a cannibalism score for the ad in relation to a corresponding unpaid listing, where the cannibalism score estimates the reduction in revenue to the advertiser due to the ad appearing in the same SERP as the corresponding listing.

One embodiment generates a cannibalism score for an ad by gathering keywords that are relevant to a designated advertiser, where in response to receiving a keyword a search engine returns a search engine results page (SERP), and where a SERP includes (1) a sequence of one or more ads, wherein an ad is placed by an advertiser and includes a link to a landing page, and where higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and (2) a plurality of unpaid listings, where each unpaid listing includes a link to a landing page, and where higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and where each landing page is within a domain, where a domain is a collection of web pages, and where a corresponding unpaid listing in a SERP links to a landing page in the same domain as the link of an ad in the same SERP placed by the advertiser, defining a sequence of rules, where, when applied, the rules compute a cannibalism score for an ad within a SERP in relation to a corresponding unpaid listing, where the cannibalism score estimates the reduction in revenue to the advertiser due to the ad appearing in the same SERP as the corresponding listing, for each received keyword, providing the keyword to a search engine, receiving a SERP from the search engine, determining the position of a first ad placed by the advertiser from among one or more ads in the SERP, determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing from among a plurality of unpaid listings in the SERP; and applying the rules to the ad and to the corresponding unpaid listing to obtain a cannibalism score for the ad.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a cannibalistic ad system (CAS) that automatically analyzes search engine results pages (SERPS) and identifies cannibalistic ads;

FIG. 2 is an example of a cannibalistic ad;

FIG. 3 is a simplified flowchart of an overall method for identifying cannibalistic ads; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram that depicts the software modules included in the cannibalistic ad system.

The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein, as well as combinations of embodiments, may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practiced. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Among other things, the invention may be embodied as methods, processes, systems, business methods or devices. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.

As used herein the following terms have the meanings given below:

User—means an individual that uses a mobile device, PC or other electronic device to access services provided by the present invention across a network.

Advertiser—refers to an individual, company or other organization that places an online ad, or causes an online ad to be placed, via a search engine for a good or service that they are advertising, selling, or promoting.

Keyword or search term—refers to a word, words, phrase or sentence entered by a user into a search field in a web page, also referred to as a keyword query, which is then transmitted to a search engine that performs the requested search and returns results. An advertiser may purchase, or bid on, an ad that corresponds to a keyword; in that case, the SERP returned by the search engine in response to the user entering the keyword includes a paid ad, placed by the advertiser, that corresponds to the keyword.

Search engine or Web search engine—means a computer server, or Internet service that receives a keyword, typically as a result of a keyword query, uses the keywords to search for web pages that correspond to the keywords and returns one or more search engine results pages (SERPs) that include paid ads, and unpaid, or organic, listings.

Listing—is a result from a keyword search that appears in a SERP. Each listing includes a link to a corresponding web page. A listing can be a paid ad, i.e. a paid listing, or an unpaid, or organic, listing, that is generated by a search engine. Listings in a SERP are ranked; each listing has a numerical position starting from the top, or first, or highest, position. Unless otherwise specified, a listing position in a SERP refers to the numerical position of a listing from the top in the unpaid search results. Thus, first position is the highest position, second is the next highest position, etc. Paid listings have a paid listing position and unpaid listings have an unpaid listing position.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)—means a list of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. Each element in the list, i.e. each listing, typically includes a title, a URL or link to the web page, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page. A SERP may refer to a single web page that includes a sequence of paid and unpaid listings, or to the set of all links returned for a search query possibly spanning multiple web pages.

Landing page—means a web page whose URL corresponds to a listing in a SERP. When a user clicks on a listing in a SERP the web browser requests and displays the corresponding landing page.

Cannibalistic ad—refers to a paid ad provided by a search engine in a web page in response to a search by a user that diverts clicks from a nearby unpaid listing. Generally, a cannibalistic ad has a reduced value when it appears adjacent to or in close proximity to a corresponding unpaid listing, as compared to the case where the cannibalistic ad appears in a SERP and there is no corresponding unpaid listing. In this context, value is typically measured in terms of visitors, revenue from sales of the advertised product or a similar metric. Further, a corresponding unpaid listing is an unpaid listing that refers to the same good or service advertised by the paid ad. As discussed hereinbelow, the links in a paid ad and unpaid listing may refer to the same landing page or to different landing pages.

Generalized Operation

The operation of certain aspects of the invention is described below with respect to FIGS. 1-4.

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a cannibalistic ad system (CAS) 100 that automatically analyzes search engine results pages (SERPS) and identifies cannibalistic ads.

A user 110 uses a web browser such as GOOGLE CHROME or Mozilla Firefox, or other client application, referred to herein as browser 118, to visit a website that enables him/her to perform a keyword search. Browser 118 transmits the keyword to a search engine 120 that performs the requested search and returns a (SERP) which is then displayed by browser 118. The SERP typically includes one or more paid listings, or ads, and one or more unpaid listings. Each listing corresponds to a web page, also referred to as a landing page, that is determined by search engine 120 to match the keyword.

The landing page belongs to a domain or a website 145 that is hosted by a web server or web service, referred to simply as web server 140. Web server 140 may host a plurality of domains. The web page may be static, i.e. existing as computer file in HTML format or another format or it may be dynamically generated. Further, web server 140 may provide e-commerce, enabling user 110 to purchase items, or otherwise perform transactions that generate revenue from website 145.

An ad server 130 provides ads to search engine 120 to be included in SERPS. A cannibalistic ad (CA) analyzer 135 analyzes SERPS and identifies cannibalistic ads. Generally, CA analyzer 135 generates a list of keywords which when purchased may result in cannibalistic ads being placed. The operation of CA analyzer 135 is described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 2-4 hereinbelow.

It may be appreciated, that CA analyzer 135 may operate in a different server or computer system than ad server 130. Further, ad server 130 may be implemented as more than one physical server computer or by a cloud service such as AMAZON AWS. Further, CA analyzer 135 may be implemented as more than one physical server computer or by a cloud service such as AMAZON AWS.

Network 150 enables the various computers, servers, and services identified in CAS 100 to exchange data. Network 150 typically refers to the public Internet but may also refer to a private network or any combination of private and public networks.

FIG. 2 is an example of a search engine results page (SERP) 200 that includes a cannibalistic ad. In response to user 110 entering the search term 215 “surebuy grocery” into browser 118 search engine 120 returns SERP 200. SERP 200 includes a paid listing 210 and an unpaid listing 220, which is an ad for a grocery store, or chain of grocery stores, named “Surebuy Grocery”.

Listing 210 is the first and only paid ad included in SERP 200. Listing 220 is an unpaid ad 220. Unpaid ad 220 is in the first unpaid listing position in SERP 200.

Ad 210 is a cannibalistic ad because it is immediately above unpaid listing 220. If ad 210 did not appear above unpaid listing 220 than a larger percentage of users would click on unpaid listing 220. Thus, an advertiser paid for ad 210 even for the cases where a user would have otherwise clicked on unpaid listing 220 had ad 210 not been present in SERP 200. Thus, placement of ad 210 in the position immediately above unpaid listing 220 increased the cost of advertising commensurately.

Cases of Cannibalistic Ads

The case of FIG. 2, in which an unpaid listing appears immediately below a paid ad for the same product or service and where the paid ad is in the first position is considered the primary case of a cannibalistic ad. In this case there is only one paid ad, the cannibalistic ad. However, there are other cases in which an advertiser may deem an ad to be cannibalistic.

Several factors may be considered in determining whether a paid ad is cannibalistic. These include (1) position, (2) distance, (3) rate or frequency of appearance, (4) whether the landing page is the same or different, and (5) whether it is a “friendly” ad or a “competitive” ad (or neither), and (6) the incremental or net revenue that accrues from an ad placed by an advertiser as compared to the revenue that accrues due to the organic search results. Factors 1-5 are discussed first and a rule-based approach to evaluating whether an ad is cannibalistic based on these factors is presented.

Position refers to the position in the search results of a paid ad or of a corresponding unpaid listing. As mentioned, the primary case is where the paid ad and the unpaid listing are each in first position, i.e. the paid ad is in the first position among the paid ads and the unpaid listing is in the first position among the unpaid listings. However, a paid ad in the 2^(nd) or 3^(rd) position and the unpaid listing in 1^(st) position, may, in some cases, be considered cannibalistic.

Distance refers to the number of listings, paid and unpaid, between the paid ad and the unpaid listing. Distance may be determined from the position of the paid ad, the total number of paid ads and the position of the unpaid listing as follows:

Distance=(# PAs−position PA)+position UL  Equation 1

where # PAs is the number of paid ads, position PA is the position of the paid ad being analyzed among all the paid ads, and position UL is the position of a corresponding unpaid listing among the unpaid listings.

Rate or frequency of appearance refers to the fact that the position of ads and unpaid listings may change from search-to-search. Thus, in some embodiments, a search term may be “sampled” over a period of time or over a number of repetitions in order to determine an average position of a paid ad or of an unpaid listing in a SERP that is provided in response to receiving a specific keyword. For example, a search may be repeated once a minute or once an hour for a day or a week to obtain positions of a paid ad or an unpaid listing in the received SERPs. Alternatively, a search may be repeated 100 times during a day. Of course, other sampling methods may also be used.

In some cases, the landing page of a cannibalistic ad is different than the landing page of its corresponding unpaid listing. In some cases, such an ad is considered cannibalistic; in other cases an advertiser may be testing a landing page, or simply prefer to have a user see their ad rather than an unpaid listing that is generated by a search engine.

“Friendly” Ads and “Competitive” Ads

An ad may be categorized as a “friendly” ad or as a “competitive” ad with respect to a specific ad placed by an advertiser. The category assigned to an ad can then be used as part of a determination as to whether the advertiser's ad is cannibalistic.

Example 1: In a first example, if a first company is a business partner with a second company, then it may treat ads by the second company as “friendly” and agree to not advertise competitively with ads placed by the second company. Thus, in this example, a friendly ad in any position among the paid ads implies that the advertiser's own ad is cannibalistic. Several other examples are given below.

Example 2: an auto dealer B sells autos manufactured by auto manufacturer A. Manufacturer A may consider that ads by dealer B for products from manufacturer A are friendly and decide not to advertise when ads by dealer B appear.

Example 3: alternatively, manufacturer A considers that ads placed by dealer B for their products (i.e. products from manufacturer A) are competitive and may want to advertise directly against those ads, i.e. advertise when it is statistically likely that an ad placed by dealer B will appear in a SERP.

Example 4: an Advertiser considers an ad cannibalistic if there are no competitive ads regardless of the position of a corresponding unpaid listing.

More generally, an advertiser may consider an ad placed by a specific company or organization to be friendly or competitive and can implement ad rules based on such a determination.

Further, an advertiser, by scraping and then analyzing SERPS. can easily determine the domain of landing pages for ads in a SERP. Thus, a friendly ad can be considered as an ad with a landing page in a friendly domain and a competitive ad can be considered as an ad with a landing page in a competitive domain. Thus, in certain embodiments, friendly and competitive ads can be determined based on a list of friendly domains and a list of competitive domains. In other embodiments, company and organization names or even product names may be used to determine whether an ad is friendly or competitive.

Thus, from the perspective of an advertiser, each ad in a SERP can be categorized as: 1) their own ad, 2) a friendly ad, 3) a competitive ad, and 4) other, i.e. an ad from a company, organization or domain that is not the advertiser itself, not friendly and not competitive.

In certain embodiments, CA analyzer 135 only analyzes the first SERP returned by a search on a search term. Typically, there is a maximum number of paid ads in a SERP; for example, the GOOGLE search engine returns a maximum of four ads on a SERP. Thus, the most frequently returned ad for each ad position can be determined. In the following discussion, it is assumed that the most frequently returned ad for each SERP position is determined by CA analyzer 135 and the category of the ad is similarly determined.

In other embodiments, each ad can be categorized or classified in a more general way, i.e. an arbitrary number of categories, other than friendly and competitive can be used.

Rules for Determining Cannibalistic Ads

A paid ad can be evaluated using a rule that evaluates a cannibalistic score or measure. A rule may be formulated based on the previously discussed factors, namely: (1) the categories assigned to paid ads in a SERP (2) the number of paid ads in a SERP, (3) the average distance between the advertiser's ad to its corresponding unpaid listing, and (4) the average position of the corresponding unpaid listing.

Table 1 gives an example of an approach for formulating rules that can be used to evaluate whether an ad is cannibalistic using the previously described factors of ad position, ad category, distance, and position of the corresponding unpaid listing.

In Table 1, each row represents one rule and the columns are as follows: A. the # of the rule, B. is the category of ad that appears in the 1^(st) position ad on the first SERP, C. is the category of the ad that appears in the 2^(nd) position ad on the first SERP, D. is the average position of the corresponding unpaid listing for an ad placed by an advertiser, E. is the average distance between the advertiser's ad and its corresponding unpaid listing, F. denotes whether if the rule is satisfied the advertiser's ad is considered cannibalistic (Yes) or not (No), and column G. gives a brief narrative description of the rule. Further, in this example, the categories that may be assigned to an ad are A—advertiser, F—Friendly, C—competitive, and O—other.

It may be appreciated that in the example of Table 1, columns D and E are shown as having integer values, whereas in certain embodiments they may be real numbers or decimal numbers based on the sampling values obtained for D-average position of the corresponding unpaid listing, and E-the average distance from the advertiser's ad to the corresponding unpaid listing. Further, columns B, C and F may alternatively have percentage, decimal or fractional values. For example, in column B the category value of the first position listing may be A (0.75), F (0.1), C (0.1) and O (0.05), indicating the rate or percentage of the time the first position ad is category A, F, C, or O.

It may further be appreciated that while in certain embodiments a friendly ad is considered to be an ad whose landing page is in a domain that is considered friendly, in other embodiments there may be specific rules for specific domains. For example, rule 5 is evaluated based on whether an ad with a link to a specified domain (Dom A) appears in either the 1^(st) or second paid ad position and if the corresponding unpaid ad is at a distance of less than 3 from the advertiser's ad.

Finally, if more than one rule is applied to an ad then a cannibalism score represents a total, an average value or a weighted average value of the results of all rules applied to the ad. For example, if one rule evaluates to 75% and another rule to 25% then in the simplest case an average value of 50% is the cannibalism score for the ad.

Rules Based on Incremental Ad Value

There may be a difference between the revenue that accrues to an advertiser from an ad and from a corresponding unpaid listing. This may occur if the ad and the unpaid listing each link to a different landing page since the different landing pages may have different levels of effectiveness. Thus, if an ad performs worse on average than a corresponding unpaid listing then, on average ad clicks, reduce revenue by cannibalizing clicks on the unpaid listings. Using data sources such as GOOGLE ANALYTICS and GOOGLE ADWORDS it is possible to determine an average value, or revenue, due to ad clicks and an average value, or revenue, due to clicks on a corresponding unpaid listing. The average value of a click refers to the revenue expected per click or visit, i.e. average revenue, by a visitor to the linked landing page.

One rule that can be defined by an advertiser, is based on the incremental, or comparative value, of ad clicks versus unpaid listing clicks as defined in Equation 2 below:

[(Value of Ad Click−Value of Unpaid Click)]/Cost of Ad Click  Equation 2

Here if incremental value, as defined by Equation 2, is greater than one then there is a net positive revenue from purchasing an ad after taking into account the cost to purchase the ad. Thus, a simple rule based on Equation 2 is that an ad is cannibalistic if the incremental value is less than one. But other rules may be also considered, and rules based on incremental value (Equation 2) can be mixed with rules such as those illustrated in Table 1. Further, other formulas for defining incremental value may be defined without departing from the scope of the present invention.

It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 3, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These program instructions may be provided to a processor to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute on the processor, create means for implementing the actions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions may be executed by a processor to cause a series of operational steps that implement the actions specified in the flowchart block or blocks to be performed by the processor to produce a computer-implemented process or method. The computer program instructions may also cause at least some of the operational steps shown in the blocks of the flowchart to be performed in parallel. Moreover, some of the steps may also be performed across more than one processor, such as might arise in a multi-processor computer system. In addition, one or more blocks or combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations may also be performed concurrently with other blocks or combinations of blocks, or even in a different sequence than illustrated without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.

Accordingly, blocks of the flowchart illustrations support combinations of means for performing the specified actions, combinations of steps for performing the specified actions and program instruction means for performing the specified actions. It will also be understood that each block of the flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified actions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.

FIG. 3 provides an overall method 300 for identifying cannibalistic ads and generating a cannibalism score for ads. The objective of method 300 is to evaluate search engine ads that are being purchased by an advertiser to determine which are cannibalistic.

At step 305, CA analyzer 135 gathers a set of search terms to evaluate. These may be ads that are currently being purchased by an advertiser, or prospective ads. Generally, each ad corresponds to a search term, or keyword. This step may be performed in various ways. For example, if a search engine marketing (SEM) program of a particular advertiser, e.g. Surebuy (see FIG. 2), is being evaluated, the advertiser can provide a list of search terms they typically purchase and the corresponding paid ads that appear in resulting SERPS.

Alternatively, a search engine can provide a set of keywords. For example, the GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE, provided by GOOGLE, INC., can provide a listing of search terms and the average search position of an ad that is placed relative to each search term. Thus, for example, if only the case of paid ads appearing in the first and second position and unpaid listings in the first or second position is of interest, then only search terms with an average position less than 2 may be evaluated.

Additional data can be obtained from search engines. For example, GOOGLE ADWORDS, provided by GOOGLE, INC. provides information including ad position, ad cost, click through rate, ad impression share and similar metrics.

At step 310 rules for evaluating and scoring ads are generated. These rules may be similar to those given in Table 1 or in equation 2.

At step 315 a keyword search is performed against a search engine for one of the gathered search terms.

At step 320 a SERP is received from the search engine. Note that while method 300 applies to a single search engine, it can be performed for additional search engines of interest. Thus, method 300 applies equally to all search engines.

At step 325 the listings in the received SERP (paid and unpaid) are analyzed to determine the listing position of a paid ad by the advertiser and the listing position of a corresponding unpaid listing, if any. In certain embodiments, the search is performed repeatedly, i.e, a sampling is performed to obtain an average listing position. In this case, at this step the average listing positions for the paid ad and the corresponding unpaid listing are updated.

At step 330, if sampling of the average listing positions is being performed, then a determination is made as to whether more samplings need to be performed. If so, then processing returns to step 315; if not, then processing flows to step 335.

At step 335 the rules formulated at step 310 are applied, resulting in a cannibalism score for the paid ad. A cannibalism score can have a variety of meanings. For example, in certain embodiments, the cannibalism score estimates a percentage or amount of sales or revenue lost due to the proximity of the paid ad to the corresponding listing within a SERP. Typically, the score is a percentage.

In other embodiments, the cannibalism score represents the chance that an ad actually is cannibalistic and is going to reduce revenue that would be generated by an unpaid listing. For example, there may be a 75% chance that an ad is cannibalistic.

In other embodiments, the score may be a Boolean (True, False) value that simply indicates that an ad is deemed to be cannibalistic.

At step 340, if not all keywords have been processed then processing returns to step 315. If all keywords have been processed then processing continues at step 345.

At step 345, a report is generated that a cannibalism score for each keyword-paid ad combination. Such a report may encompass all gathered keywords or only those determined to be cannibalistic. For example, only keyword-paid ad combinations that have a score higher than a given threshold value may be included in the report. In some cases, the method ends at this step and the report is provided to the advertiser or to a service company they designate, such as an online advertising company.

In other embodiments, at step 350 the advertiser or their web service company may modify their search engine advertising ad buy based on the report generated at step 345.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram that depicts the software modules of cannibalistic ad system (CAS) 100. FIG. 4 describes the relevant software elements of CAS 100, including client computer 115, search engine 120, web server 140 and ad server 130.

Client computer 115 interacts with user 110 and enables user 110 to perform web searches using a web browser 118.

Browser 118 is typically a standard, commercially available, browser such as MOZILLA FIREFOX or MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER. Alternatively, it may also be a client application configured to receive and display graphics, text, multimedia, and the like, across a network.

Browser 118 issues HTTP requests to and receives HTTP responses Internet-connected computers such as search engine 120, web server 140 and client computer 115. Application server 420 receives the HTTP requests and invokes the appropriate ad server 130 software module to process the request. Application server 420 may be a commercially available application server that includes a web server that accepts and processes HTTP requests transmits HTTP responses back along with optional data contents, which may be web pages such as HTML documents and linked objects (images, or the like).

Application server 420 establishes and manages sessions with search engine 120 and web server 140. In addition, it may interact with client computer 115.

The software modules of search engine 120 are generally outside the scope of the present invention and are not discussed further herein. Web server 140 manages one or more websites 145 where each website includes one or more domains.

Ad server 130 includes a keyword gatherer 430, a rules definer 432, cannibalistic ad (CA) analyzer 135, a cannibalistic ad (CA) report generator 434, in certain embodiments, an ad buyer 436, a keyword database 450, a rules database 452, and an ad database 454. It may be appreciated that each of the abovementioned databases may be implemented as one or more computer files spread across one or more physical storage mechanisms. In one embodiment, each of the abovementioned databases is implemented as one or more relational databases and is accessed using the structured query language (SQL).

Keyword gatherer 430 obtains keywords from search engine 120 and potentially from other sources. Keyword gatherer 430 may also obtain keywords from an advertiser, for example in computer files supplied by the advertiser. Keyword gatherer 430 stores keywords in keyword database 450. It performs the processing associated with step 305 of method 300.

Rules definer 432 defines rules that determine a score for an ad in a SERP. It stores rules in rules database 452. Rules definer 432 implements step 310 of method 300. Rules definer 432 may be implemented in a variety of ways; for example in certain embodiments rules definer 432 simply receives a text file that defines the rules; while in other embodiments it provides a graphic interface to client computer 115 that allows a user to interactively define rules. Generally, the method for defining rules is outside the scope of the present invention.

CA analyzer 135 performs the processing associated with steps 315-340 of method 300. It uses gathered keywords stored in keyword database 450 to obtain SERPS and to determine the position of paid ads and corresponding listings and stores the results in keyword database 450. It further evaluates SERPS to generate a cannibalistic ad score and stores the results in ad database 454.

CA report generator 434 generates a report that provides the cannibalistic ad scores for ads from an advertiser. It performs step 345 of method 300.

In certain embodiments ad buyer 436 purchases ads from search engine 120 that take into account the results of the cannibalistic ad analysis as represented by cannibalistic ad report stored in ad database 454. In other embodiments, ad buyer 436 is not part of CAS 100.

Keyword database 450 stores gathered keywords. It also stores the positions or average positions of ads and corresponding unpaid listings, where the ads are placed by an advertiser or by ad server 130 or by another party acting on behalf of the advertiser and where the ads appear in SERPS returned as a result of keyword searches.

Rules database 452 stores rules that are used to generate a cannibalism score for ads.

Ad database 454 stores ads supplied by an advertiser that correspond to gathered keywords. Generally, each keyword of interest to an advertiser has a corresponding paid ad that may be placed with a search engine. Ad database 454 also stores CA reports generated by CA report generator 434.

The above specification, examples, and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

TABLE 1 Example Rules for Determining if an Ad is Cannibalistic D. A. B. C. Unpaid E. F. Rule # Cat Ad 1 Cat Ad 2 Position Distance Is Can? G. Description of Rule 1 A NA 1 1 Yes (Cannibalistic) Classic case of cannibalistic ad. Advertiser's ad is in 1^(st) position and unpaid listing is typically in 1^(st) position. There is typically not a 2^(nd) position ad. 2 A F 1 2 Yes (Cannibalistic) Advertiser's Ad is in 1^(st) position; 2^(nd) position ad is a friendly ad; and unpaid listing is typically in 1^(st) position. 3 A C 1 2 Yes (Cannibalistic) Advertiser's ad is in 1^(st) position; 2^(nd) ad is competitive; unpaid listing is typically in 1^(st) position 4 A C 2 3 No (Not Cannibalistic) Advertiser's ad is in 1^(st) position; 2^(nd) ad is competitive; unpaid listing is in 2^(nd) position. 5 Dom Dom NA <3 No (Not Cannabalistic) An ad, A A not the advertiser's ad appears in either the 1^(st) or 2^(nd) paid ad position, and the advertiser's corresponding unpaid listing is a distance of less than 3 from the advertiser's ad, then. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method generating a cannibalism score for an ad, comprising: gathering a plurality of keywords that are relevant to a designated advertiser, wherein in response to receiving a keyword a search engine returns a search engine results page (SERP), and wherein a SERP includes (1) a sequence of one or more ads, wherein an ad is placed by an advertiser and includes a link to a landing page, and wherein higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and (2) a plurality of unpaid listings, wherein each unpaid listing includes a link to a landing page, and wherein higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and wherein each landing page is within a domain, wherein a domain is a collection of web pages, and wherein a corresponding unpaid listing in a SERP links to a landing page in the same domain as the landing page linked to an ad in the same SERP placed by the designated advertiser; defining a sequence of rules, wherein, when applied, the rules compute a cannibalism score for an ad within a SERP in relation to a corresponding unpaid listing; for each received keyword: providing the keyword to a search engine; receiving a SERP from the search engine, the SERP including one or more ads and one or more unpaid listings; determining the position of a first ad placed by the designated advertiser from among the one or more ads; determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing from among the one or more unpaid listings; and applying the rules to the ad and to the corresponding unpaid listing to obtain a cannibalism score for the ad.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the cannibalism score represents a measure selected from the group consisting of an estimate of the reduction in revenue to the advertiser due to the ad appearing in the same SERP as the corresponding listing, an estimate of the likelihood that an ad is cannibalistic, or a BOOLEAN determination as to whether an ad is cannibalistic.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said determining the position of an ad refers to determining an average position of the ad and said determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing refers to determining an average position of the unpaid listing and wherein at least one of said rules is based in part on the position of the ad and the position of the unpaid listing.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein each rule is based on one or more factors selected from the group consisting of the position of an ad within a SERP, the number of ads in the SERP, the position of a corresponding unpaid listing within the SERP, the average revenue per click on the ad, and the average revenue per click on the unpaid listing.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein each ad in a SERP can be assigned a category selected from the group consisting of an ad placed by the designated advertiser, a friendly ad, a competitive ad, or another ad and wherein at least one rule is based the category of an ad in the SERP.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein a distance may be computed between an ad and an unpaid listing within a SERP and at least one rule in the sequence of rules is based on the distance between the ad placed by the advertiser and the corresponding unpaid listing.
 7. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a report that includes a cannibalism score for each ad placed by the designated advertiser that appears in a received SERP.
 8. The method of claim 7 further comprising purchasing ads from the search engine based at least in part on the report of cannibalistic ads.
 9. A network computing device, comprising: a keyword gatherer for gathering a plurality of keywords that are relevant to a designated advertiser, wherein in response to receiving a keyword a search engine returns a search engine results page (SERP), and wherein a SERP includes (1) a sequence of one or more ads, wherein an ad is placed by an advertiser and includes a link to a landing page, and wherein higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and (2) a plurality of unpaid listings, wherein each unpaid listing includes a link to a landing page, and wherein higher positions in the sequence are more valuable than lower positions, and wherein each landing page is within a domain, wherein a domain is a collection of web pages, and wherein a corresponding unpaid listing in a SERP links to a landing page in the same domain as the landing page an ad in the same SERP placed by the designated advertiser; a keyword definer for defining a sequence of rules, wherein, when applied, the rules compute a cannibalism score for an ad within a SERP in relation to a corresponding unpaid listing, wherein the cannibalism score estimates the reduction in revenue to the advertiser due to the ad appearing in the same SERP as the corresponding listing; and a CA analyzer for processing each received keyword, the processing comprising the steps of: providing the keyword to a search engine; receiving a SERP from the search engine determining the position of a first ad placed by the designated advertiser from among one or more ads in the SERP; determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing from among a plurality of unpaid listings in the SERP; and applying the rules to the ad and to the corresponding unpaid listing to obtain a cannibalism score for the ad.
 10. The network computing device of claim 9 wherein said determining the position of an ad refers to determining an average position of the ad and said determining the position of a corresponding unpaid listing refers to determining an average position of the unpaid listing and wherein at least one of said rules is based in part on the position of the ad and the position of the unpaid listing.
 11. The network computing device of claim 9 wherein each rule is based on one or more factors selected from the group consisting of the position of an ad within a SERP, the number of ads in the SERP, the position of a corresponding unpaid listing within the SERP, the average revenue per click on the ad, and the average revenue per click on the unpaid listing.
 12. The network computing device of claim 9 wherein each ad in a SERP can be assigned a category selected from the group consisting of an ad placed by the designated advertiser, a friendly ad, a competitive ad, or another ad and wherein at least one rule is based the category of an ad in the SERP.
 13. The network computing device of claim 9 wherein a distance may be computed between an ad and an unpaid listing within a SERP and at least one rule in the sequence of rules is based on the distance between the ad placed by the designated advertiser and the corresponding unpaid listing.
 14. The network computing device of claim 9 further comprising a cannibalistic ad report generator that generates a report that includes a cannibalism score for each ad placed by the designated advertiser that appears in a received SERP.
 15. The network computing device of claim 14 further comprising an ad buyer for purchasing ads from the search engine based at least in part on the report of cannibalistic ads. 